Lawmakers disagree on which chamber held up Chapter 90 bill

Friday

Jul 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMJul 27, 2012 at 4:45 PM

State lawmakers can’t agree on what held up Chapter 90 funding this year. Senate leaders say the bill was “held hostage” by House members seeking earmarks, while House officials say the Senate blew an early opportunity to approve the aid.

Patrick Ronan

State lawmakers can’t agree on what held up Chapter 90 funding this year. Senate leaders say the bill was “held hostage” by House members seeking earmarks, while House officials say the Senate blew an early opportunity to approve the aid.

Funding for local road repairs, or Chapter 90 aid, wasn’t approved by the Legislature until late last month, nearly three months later than last year. The delay has prompted several local towns to push back seasonal road repairs.

State Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, who served on the joint transportation bond bill conference committee, said the House’s bid for earmarks – to secure funding for local transportation projects – was the primary source of delay.

“I’ve never been on a more convoluted, confusing conference committee, and I’ve been on more than a dozen transportation bond conference committees,” Hedlund said.

State Sen. Brian Joyce, D-Milton, chairman of the Senate committee on bonding, capital expenditures and state assets, said the Senate preferred a bill “unencumbered by earmarks.”

In March, Gov. Deval Patrick introduced a one-year, $1.5 billion transportation bond bill, which included $200 million in Chapter 90 money. The rest of the bond bill included funding for state, federal, bridge and rail projects.

It took nearly four months for legislators to pull Chapter 90 from the larger bill and vote on it separately. House leaders approved Chapter 90 separately back in March, but the Senate wanted to keep the original bill in tact.

“The House preferred to have a pure Chapter 90 bill in the early spring and sent that bill to the Senate,” State Rep. William Straus, D-Mattapoisett, said. Straus is chairman of the joint committee on transportation.

“Beyond that I will refrain from any institutional name calling,” Straus added.